Luang Prabang Day 3

On the 3rd day, we walked down the other side of the road to this cute little roadside breakfast place and had a hearty brekkie!!!


Look at daughter...close to 20 but looks and behaves like a kiddo with us. She is absolutely comfy and warm in her hoodie bought the night before,

Loved the breakfast, with local Laos noodle soup too.

Our destination today is Kouang Si Waterfall, the most famous and instgrammable place in Laos

Before we reach Kuangsi, we had to go through Bear Sanctuary and these two suddenly went into Bear Mode.

Real bears frolicking at the shelter.

before we knew it we reached the waterfall (after a long trek...)

wow, breathtaking, and cold!!!

Lost no time in taking phots, lots of photos!!!!

We could not afford to waste too much time at one spot because we had other nooks to cover.

Another level. I suppose you could go up there to take really good shots, but it was too cold!!!
I could do another blog post solely for Kuangsi Falls, so I leave this place to show you the other attractions that we went for Day 3.

As we left the waterfall, I saw this odd sign, hahaha!!!! NO BARE CHESTS!!!!

Lunch was at this market place.  Full of tourists, good food and lots of shopping stalls too.

Walking back, we even had the chance to drop in at the many temples.

Unpronounceable names so I shoot the signage.

Another temple.

With the iconic coconut tree.....this is the picture that they advertise Luang Prabang with.

On reaching our room, she drops gratefully on her bed and proceeded to nap the lunch break off!!! Well, teenagers are really sleep-deprived. (soon to be ex-teenager)



After her power nap we are going to the next attraction: The Peak

Long long climb up......NEXT POST.....hahahah!!!!

Luang prabang Day 2

Woke up early to get to Saffron Cafe for our excellent breakfast! 

Latte and cuppocino (17,000 kip)  big breakfast (49,000 kip)
and burrito (30,000 kip)  

And then it was a very very cold ride in an almost open boat to
 Whisky Village and Pak Ou Caves

It was so cold and we wereso not dressed in woolly winter wear
and my daughter who was dressed only in a thin denim jacket and
 had an even thinner scarf to wrap herself with, was frozen
 during the 2 hour boat ride. Here the villagers share their fire with her! 

 I was okay and walked around the village called Ban Xang Hai
where villagers demonstrate the distillation process : here
  rice flour ferments in jars for 15 days.

The alcohol is sometimes combined with scorpions and snakes
in clear bottles for added potency...a beverage clearly for the
 more adventurous!  

Then it was back to the boat again to get to the caves 

How our boat looks like....

The scenery here is fantastic and we could pose all day!
But it was time for us to climb up to caves where more than
 4000 statues of Buddha can be found in every nook and corner. 

The lower cave is only a few dozen steps from rhe jetty but the
upper cave takes more than 200 steps up and they look craggy
and perilous so I gave it a miss, and the better too, because a
French couple who got back to the boat past the stipulated time
 got a shelling from the boatman!!! 

Waiting for the other passengers who were late. 

We went back to our residence and this girl took the opportunity
to bundle up after freezing her butt off  on the boat ride home!
 We learnt from social media too that in Malaysia and Singapore
folks back home were experiencing ‘winter’ too at 22 degrees and lower!

After a nap we went to look for late lunch of tom yam fried rice
and pad thai... Laos food is Thai and Burmese cuisine combined 

Then it was pasar malam tine and we managed to buy a hoodie
for daughter so she could face the rest of her trip comfortably bundled up! 

Look at her... she loves her winter ‘parka cum hoodie’ as it keeps her snug! 

The night market in Luang Prabang showcases handmade traditional 
souvenirs and crafts; the traders here are artisans and rhey come from
 near and far. Buying from them means you take home exceptionally 
crafted goods and contribute towards sustaining local communities like 
the Hmong tribes.

It was tine for dinner to end our 2nd day in LB and what better
way than to have it with BEERLAO!!!!!

2018 Vacation : Luang Prabang

We started 2018 off with a vacation to an Asean destination: Luang Prabang to take advantage of Air Asia 500 ringgit voucher and also to bring our daughter on a holiday with us before she leaves for university. 

We took off for 4 days which is more than you need for a Luang Prabang holiday that does mit include Vientiane or even Vang Vieng! 

Anyway we found ourselves on this pavement with our luggage and proceeded to look for Sok Dee Residence which was actually right down the sidelane but we went on a wild goosechase looking for it! 

So this was to be our residence for the next few days...

Straightaway after checking in we walked out and found ourselves at this surreal place where people sat on bar stools overlooking a river : the Mekong no less, I’ve studied that in my History and Geography books and now it’s there, right in front of me! 

And we sat there too! Staring not at the river but at the photographer, hehe!!!

After much clicking, we went looking for dinner with a view.

So nice! Not only dinner with a fantastic view, weather was bracingly cold for me to enjoy my cuppa: Laotian coffee!

Walking back, bought fritters from this good looker who plied his simple ware right outside his heritage house that was not turned into a guest house or restaurant like  his neighbours.

We ended our first night with a foot massage!

40,000 kip for 1/2 an hour... perfect nightcap for bed!

Next: full touring day ahead!